Elmer Gantry (1960)

synopsis

Featuring Burt Lancaster in a brilliant, Best Actor Oscar-winning performance, Elmer Gantry is an unforgettable screen drama by writer/director Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof). Handsome, opportunistic, immoral. Travelling salesman Elmer Gantry (Lancaster) is all this and more. So when he stumbles into a revival meeting and discovers that he can hustle money in a tent-show as easily as in a saloon, Gantry converts to evangelism. Joining forces with Sister Sharon Falconer (beautiful Jean Simmons), he delivers demon-blasting oratories that bring him fame and fortune. But when an old flame (Shirley Jones) re-appears, Gantry is forced to confront demons of a more worldly order - long-buried secrets that will make his "saintly" life a veritable Hell on Earth!

member reviews

1 member review(s)

Elmer Gantry
Classic lover
21 October 2009

member rating

Burt Lancaster is brilliant in the movie version of Sinclair Lewis's classic tale. Whilst the movie starts around chapter 8 of the book - whether you see the characters as good or bad is a question of your own values. A classic tale casting questions over Christian revivalism that is as pertinent today.